1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus directly connected to an image input apparatus, printing system and printing method.
2. Related Background Art
Various information processing apparatuses, communications apparatuses, and printing apparatuses are prevailing as multimedia has been recently developed rapidly, and these apparatuses are complicatedly interconnected as a network system. Of these apparatuses, printing apparatuses in particular are required to have a communications function with a plurality type of apparatuses in order to form images requested by these apparatuses. In spite of these circumstances, apparatuses are manufactured and sold independently by different makers so that it is necessary to provide a document explaining a use method of each apparatus. A user is required to read and understand the contents of the manual of each apparatus in order to use the network system freely and easily.
Various communications types can be realized now by various apparatuses of different makers by using the standard interface. Under such conditions, a large volume of manuals is used in the network system. A user is therefore required to understand and manage several manuals. A large amount of labor has been imposed upon each user particularly when an error occurs, because the user is not easy to locate the error immediately so that the user opens a manual of each apparatus and searches an error code in the manual.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problem and provide a printing apparatus, a printing system and a printing method capable of making it easy for a user to understand the contents of an operation manual or an error countermeasure of an image input apparatus connected to a printing apparatus, without opening and reading a real manual.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing apparatus to be connected to an image input apparatus, comprising: reception means for receiving an error code from the image input apparatus; search means for searching information containing error contents and an error countermeasure corresponding to the error code received by the reception means; and print means for printing the information containing the error contents and the error countermeasure searched by the search means.
A printing apparatus of the invention to be connected to an image input apparatus, comprises: reception means for receiving information containing an operation procedure of the image input apparatus from the image input apparatus; and print means for printing the information received by the reception means.
A printing system of the invention comprises: a printing apparatus to be connected to an image input apparatus, comprising: reception means for receiving an error code from the image input apparatus; search means for searching information containing error contents and an error countermeasure corresponding to the error code received by the reception means; and print means for printing the information containing the error contents and the error countermeasure searched by the search means, wherein the image input means transmits the error code to the printing apparatus when an error occurs.
A printing system of this invention comprises: a printing apparatus to be connected to an image input apparatus, comprising: reception means for receiving information containing an operation procedure of the image input apparatus from the image input apparatus; and print means for printing the information received by the reception means, wherein the image input apparatus transmits information containing error contents and an error countermeasure to the printing apparatus if an error occurs.
A printing method for a printing apparatus to be connected to an image input apparatus, the method comprises: a reception step of receiving an error code from the image input apparatus; a search step of searching information containing error contents and an error countermeasure corresponding to the error code received at the reception step; and a print step of printing the information containing the error contents and the error countermeasure searched at the search step.
A printing method of this invention for a printing apparatus to be connected to an image input apparatus, the method comprises: a reception step of receiving information containing an operation procedure of the image input apparatus from the image input apparatus; and a print step of printing the information received at the reception step.